Is it still Photography?

When it comes to editing pictures, there are two extremes. One group says that if you do any editing to a picture, it is no longer a "true photograph". The other group says that anything goes as long as you started with a picture.

I am somewhere in the middle and feel that part of choice depends on what the purpose of the picture is. In a news article, the should be no changes to the original image. This is necessary to preserve the authenticity of the reporting agency. There was an example earlier this year where there was apparently an additional missile in an image that was widely distributed before the editing was discovered.

In most cases though, I think that some editing is acceptable. For example, in my picture of Cotopaxi, I adjusted the levels a bit to show the blue in the sky and the white snow better.


Sometimes however, I think it is perfectly acceptable to do some more processing work on a picture. This may be as simple as a little cloning to get rid of some dust or something more extreme like converting a photograph into an oil painting or pencil sketch. Like this:



So what do you think? Please vote on the poll and leave a comment.